Türkiye-built engines for domestic choppers draw foreign customers

Turkish Aerospace Industries’ (TAI) engine manufacturing subsidiary, TUSAŞ Engine Industries (TEI), continues with domestic engine production without slowing down, and those engines that will power nationally built choppers have already attracted demand from outside Türkiye, the company’s general manager said

TEI General Manager Mahmut Faruk Akşit told Anadolu Agency (AA) that they delivered the first prototype of the TS1400 turboshaft engine to TAI 1 1/2 years ago to start the integration studies.

“We have been continuing the maturation tests of the TS1400 since then. We have tested it up to the emergency take-off power,” he said.

Akşit said that this engine would be integrated into Gökbey, Türkiye’s first homegrown multirole helicopter, in the first half of next year.

The Gökbey T625 prototype was previously powered by a pair of LHTECs and CTS800 4-AT turboshaft engines that have 1,373 shaft horsepower each, created in a joint Rolls-Royce and Honeywell partnership.

Akşit was speaking at the sidelines of a major aviation and defense fair, Teknofest, which was organized by the Turkish Technology Team Foundation (T3 Foundation) and the Industry and Technology Ministry. This year’s event is being held in the northern Black Sea province of Samsun.

TEI TF6000 turbofan and TS1400 engines are also exhibited at the event.

Underlining that the TS1400 is a more powerful engine than the one on the Gökbey helicopter, Akşit said the engine used by Gökbey is the same as the engine used by the T129 Atak helicopters.

“This engine produces 1,298 horsepower continuously and 1,373 horsepower at take-off. Our engine is 100 horsepower more powerful,” he said, pointing out that the engine is for both military and civil use.

Expressing that there is a demand for the TS1400 engine from abroad, Akşit said, “This demand comes with the platform. There are those who want Gökbey helicopters or Atak helicopters from abroad, together with our engine.”

“We plan to complete the certification process and bring it to the mass production stage,” he said.

Stating that Türkiye has an important place in the world in terms of engine production, Akşit said:

“As TEI, we are in a very good place in the production of engine parts in the world. We have become the largest supplier of the world’s best-selling engines.”